With the costly repairs of the damage to our motorhome from the invasion of wood-rats, we made the difficult decision to leave our planned summer location and not risk further damage. Our budget is such that we just cold not be comfortable with continuing in that same location. It happens that my favorite aunt & uncle have the family farm where she grew up, only ten miles or so away and that they were already housing us during the four days when we didn't have the motorhome, so we have chosen to take advantage of their hospitality and to stay here in our motorhome for a couple of weeks. We love this place and we have had such a great time spending time with my cousins from the days when i was a boy in this part of the country.

I grew up on a farm that is about twenty miles from where we are now and that has since been absorbed into a much larger farm, as is the case with so many farms today. We still have many friends and relatives in this area so we do enjoy spending time here and we also have so much to share with my family.

The area is very quiet when one is used to city life even though the road passes just next to where our motorhome is now sitting. Most days there is frequent traffic though here with sometimes as many as a dozen vehicles that pass by in a days time! It reminds me of the place where I was a boy, when we knew when the regulars went bay and so looked to see who it was at any time that a car or truck passed at some other time of day. And my uncle nearly always knows who it is when the go past. Everyone notices if a stranger happens along and it would be very difficult to do anything without someone watching you and making note. Having spent time here numerous times, all of the neighbors know us, our motorhome and even out CR-V. In fact, we traded cars last October and thus far two of the neighbors have stopped to ask how we like the new one.

The road is of gravel and not the crushed rock kind but rather of native chert and flint from the local streams. It is very durable but it also can do great damage to the paint on vehicles or to the tires if you drive too fast, so high speed traffic is just not an issue. Farm trucks and stock trucks are the fastest things on the road, and most of those travel at about 35 to 40 mph. Since it is country, most people have a dog or two and few of them are fenced in or kept tied. Muffie loves the area with rabbits to worry and all kinds of things to investigate. She has always enjoyed a ride and has now added a farm trailer and an ATV to the many vehicles that she has ridden. 

Since we have been here we have been able to help out with chores around the farm to repay our host and hostess for the utilities. We don't have sewer, but we have enough electricity for one air conditioner and we have water. We use the house for showers and we are quite at home here. I have helped with the mowing and tree trimming and several other small chores. But we also do a lot of visiting, reminiscing and  cruising the countryside to see the places where we spent some great times over the years.

My aunt lived on this farm as a girl and met my uncle when we was employed as a farm hand at the next farm up the road. They were married and then traveled the world as he served a career in the Navy, then returned to Kansas when he retired. There are days that our experiences here make us very tempted to return to this area when we stop or RV travels. If it were not so far to our sons, it would likely be a done deal!

The area is peaceful but far from boring. There are many things to do for those who like the country. Council Grove Lake and the local streams provide fishing, while wild turkeys, pheasants, prairie chickens and white tail deer provide hunting activities. If you like predator hunting, there are coyotes  that are not protected and hunting those is encouraged. For nature watchers the deer are not heavily hunted and so are seen frequently as is an occasional bobcat. 

Each Sunday night the county arts committee sponsors an evening of music in the city park in Council Grove all summer and there is a country music jam at Cottonwood Falls every Friday night. Neither one cost anything to attend, although the Emma Chase Cafe is the sponsor and many of us do buy our dinner there before the program begins.   The programs in the park range from country, to gospel, to even a clarinet quartet of Kansas University music professors.  At the Cottonwood gathering it is always some kind of country, with weeks varying from Bluegrass, to Country to Rock & Roll from the 50's and 60's.  The food is good at both cafes in town and it is a great place to meet new friends. This has become very popular all across the country and it is very common for a traveling entertainer to stop by if in the area and participate. Even a few well known musicians will be there on occasion. 

After two great weeks with my aunt & uncle near Council Grove, we have not moved back to Wichita, KS where we will be staying on the property of our good friends, Neil & Bennie Hollingsworth. They have now left the road and moved back to a house and so we will be staying in their RV port while we care for their new lawn so that they can do some traveling and visiting family on the west coast. We have been so fortunate to have made the kind of friends that we have since going traveling. 

US Army, Corps of Engineers

Council Grove Lake is one of the smaller lakes in the flood control program and is a part of the plan authorized by Congress in 1950. Construction was begun in late 1960 and the lake was opened to public use in 1964.

This location asks for only 15 hours per week of their volunteers and that for one person. Couples are encouraged to put in 20 hours between them, so this is one of the easier locations for a volunteer. Like most places, extra work is very much appreciated by the staff here. 

Volunteers are given a choice of where they wish to stay, as the gate duties here are all done by contract employees through a bid system, like most Corps lakes. Public contact by the volunteers is very limited. The nice part of that is that we do not have an obligation to be available on weekends, as campground hosts nearly always do. The volunteer sites vary here but we believe that we have a very nice one. We are located in Kit Carson campground and in a site that has traditionally been a campground host location. We have full hook-ups and this is the only site in this campground which does. We do only have 30A electrical service, but the site is in total shade and so it probably will not be so critical for use of air conditioners as it could be. We will also be leaving here at the end of July when the heat really sets in.

We are only about a mile from the small town of Council Grove, which has limited shopping and services. About thirty miles away are either Junction City or Manhattan, both of which have a Super Wal-Mart and most commonly found major chain stores. Topeka is about an hour away with pretty much anything a person might want.  

The lake is large enough to supply water skiing and boating and is particularly  popular with crappie and catfish fishermen.Our campground is one of the smaller ones on the lake with only twenty sites, with all except one having both water and electricity. The dump station is about 1/2 mile down the road at the next campground. The shore line is a bit rocky in most areas here so beaching areas for boats are limited, but we do have a boat ramp for launching. Most of the campsites are near the water and most have at least some shade. Shade can be important here as summer days can get quite hot. The majority of campsites are also reasonably level, which can be a problem with Corps parks. 

We began our work schedule here by painting a newly constructed information kiosk in the park just to our north which is presently closed for remodeling. Federal job stimulus money is being used to  put in 50A electrical to each RV site there as well as reconstruction of some of the facilities that have been damaged by high lake levels in past years. The parks were built in the early 70's so this is some needed work. The kiosk is located next to a swimming area and is replacing one that was damaged. With both of us working we finished the task in about 5 hours of work.

With the park closed the Canada Geese were taking full advantage of the nice sand beach. It seems to have been family day on the beach and the youngsters were quite entertaining. There is a large resident flock of geese here on this lake and the goslings are just beginning to  swim with the adults. The parents were keeping them close at all times and it was quite a scene.

Another job that we have done here is to remove the brush that has grown up to block the view of signs in the parks around the lake. This can be a problem for both the visitor and the enforcement rangers as it is just a little difficult to obey a rule that one does not know about. I spent most of one day in driving around the lake and clipping all brush that inhibits a clear view of the signs in the campgrounds and around the boat ramps.   Since we do not have access to corps trucks, I simply cut and piled the offending limbs and one of the rangers then came to haul it away. The work isn't hard but with the humidity high, it was quite easy to work up a serious sweat!

In addition to this, the plan was for me to build some new portable barricades for use in diverting roads, reserving sites and other traffic direction around the lake as a first step to this work I sorted all of the existing barricades, finding that most were in poor shape, with a few still reasonably good but in need of paint. I cleaned those up and repainted them, with plans to start to build new ones just as soon as the ranger gets some form that volunteers need to read and sign before they are allowed to use any power tools.  There are some other wood projects that we have been told of, but which can not be started until I gain access to the wood shop and power saws.

Starting about a week after our arrival, the rains were frequent and heavy. On the weekend of June 13 & 14 my rain gauge recorded more than 7 inches of rain and there were areas that drain into the lake that received more than double what we had. Since there had been flooding farther down stream on the river the lake managers were not allowed to open the gates right away and as a result the lake began to rise very rapidly. At one point the level was coming up at a rate of must over two inches per hour. The park rangers stopped to let us know that we should be ready to move to higher campsites in the event that this should continue. For that reason we packed up our belongings and prepared to move if we should be directed to do so. In the process of preparing to move,I went to start the motorhome, but it did not start! After several attempts, our road service was called and the decision was made to have it towed into Manhattan to a Ford truck shop for repairs. While we could have stayed in the motorhome at the shop, we chose to spend the time with my uncle who has a farm just ten miles from the campground where we have been staying. That turned out to be a good move as the repair took longer than expected and it was the following Friday before it was ready. It turns out that the fuel pump was not working and that is why it would not start. After replacement of the pump, the problem was not solved and they then discovered that a rat had made a home in our chassis and had chewed through some of the wires in the construction of that home. 

Both of the other volunteers who reside here had mentioned to Pam that there were rat problems here and when I mentioned that to the lead ranger, he did agree that it was a known problem. For some reason, we had not been warned of this and had we been, I have found in other locations that stringing rope lights all around the underside of the RV will keep the little buggers away, but nobody even mentioned the problem! In view of that and the fact that we no longer have our rope lights for the RV, we have chosen to leave the park a month early. We dislike doing this, but with a cost of $1300+ for repairs and the fact that I still did not have clearance to use the saws, we just feel that the risk is too great. For that reason, we have now moved to my uncle's farm where we will stay for two weeks before moving to the property of some friends in Wichita, KS until time to move on to Kentucky.

Winfield, Kansas Aug. 17 – 19, 2001

If you happen to pass through southern Kansas in late August, and if you have any interest in old tractors and farm machinery, this is a show to see!

This is the largest show of old tractors that I have seen, and it was of particular interest to us because these were the tractors that were used in Kansas in the days that I was growing up and when my father was a boy.

There was also an excellent display of old machinery from farms of the fifties and before.

And there were machines from the days when the machine sat still and the farmers had to bring the crops to the machines, and steam was King!

And there were other old machines, too.

But most of all there were tractors!

May - August 2001

Cheney Park is about 30 miles west of Wichita, Ks. on US54. You exit to Ks.251 north for 5.5 miles. The park has two sections, one on each side of the lake. We are located at the M&M Point campground. The park contains 2,495 acres. There are more than 200 camping sites with water and electric in four campgrounds.

There are five additional campgrounds with no utilities. There are four dump stations, 25 boat launching lanes, ten restrooms with showers, four swimming areas, two shelter-houses, two marinas, and a park office and maintenance facility.

 

The most popular activities at Cheney Park center around water. The lake is especially favored by the windsurfers and sailboat owners. As you might surmise, that is partly because the wind blows at least lightly, nearly all of the time. The lake is also very popular with fisherman. It is currently rated as the top walleye lake in the state of Kansas, and it also produces excellent channel catfish and white bass, as well as some good crappie fishing. There is also a large usage of personal watercraft as well as boating and water skiing.

The most remarkable thing about Cheney Park is the management and staff. Jerry Schmidt, Park Manager, is the person in charge. With the able assistance of Jody Schwartz, Park Manager, he has put together an outstanding team. The year around staff has ten people with an additional seasonal staff of sixteen more, including six seasonal rangers. There are also ten volunteer couples that serve as Camp Hosts in the summer months. After years of visiting our public parks in many parts of the country, we believe that this is one of the best-managed parks we have visited. This park is definitely worth considering for either a visit, or as a place to spend some time as a volunteer.

Work-camping experience:

At this park there are ten positions for camp hosts. Each camp host is expected to be in his area most of the time from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. They try and have each position filled by May 1 each year and it lasts through Labor Day. Camp hosts sell camping and entry permits, remind visitors of the rules, and act as eyes for the park staff. Each host couple is issued a portable radio to stay in touch with the staff and to reach a ranger if one should be needed. Each host is given an expense allowance for the use of his own vehicle, depending upon the number of sites in his campground. For M&M point, we received $150 per month. Additionally, if desired the host can do minor maintenance and mowing around the park for a small hourly wage, but it is not required. We believe that a good camp host keeps litter picked up in his campground, however it is not required to be done at this park. We also replaced the supplies in the restrooms in our campground and notified the cleaning crew when needed. We were not asked to do any of the cleaning. All host sites do have access to a phone line, if you wish to pay the bill and a washer and dryer are available. Even after three years of experience as live-on volunteers, we would rate Cheney Park as the best managed facility that we have spent time in.

For information about Kansas state parks, visit the Kansas Parks web site.